Have you ever cooked with spelt? Do you even know what it is? I didn’t until last year.
spelt rolls made by me last weekend – please note that the mis-shapen quality of them is meant to be endearing…
According to Wikipedia it is a hexaploid species of wheat, whatever that means (science types do please pipe up now!).
What is rather more understandable, and quite interesting, is how ancient this grain is. Archaeological evidence of the use of spelt in Europe goes back as far as Neolithic times (2500-1700BCE), and was commonly used in southern Britain from 500BCE onwards. That’s one ancient grain! 
Spelt flour gets a bit of a bad press. It is often used as a main product in foods marketed at those sensitive to wheat and gluten. Unfortunately whilst wheat sensitive people may well tolerate this better than bread made with wheat flour, it is not suitable for gluten intolerance or celiac disease. 
It does have it’s own health benefits though. Apparently spelt may be one of the most important foods for many migraine headache sufferers since it is an excellent source of riboflavin (vitamin B2). Eating just 2 ounces of bread or other baked goods made from whole grain spelt will allegedly provide 76.5% of the daily value for riboflavin.
The bread is pretty delicious too – denser and dryer than wheat flour bread with a nutty flavour. Personally I recommend following your usual bread recipe but replacing two thirds of the wheat flour with spelt and keeping the remaining third wheat flour.
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Remember this post? Well BlissChick has interviewed me over on her blog today about chronic pain and body image. Go and check it out!
